28 Bricks&Mortar
Need to know
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Trains There’s no station, but many
people commute to London from
Pulborough (a ten-minute drive) and
Haslemere (20 minutes). Trains from
Pulborough take 80 minutes to
London Victoria.
A standard peak-time day return
costs £45.20, a super off-peak return
is £16.70. A weekly season ticket is
£112.20, an annual one costs £4,488.
A parking space costs £6 a day or
£97.50 a month. From Haslemere
the train takes just over an hour to
London Waterloo. An off-peak day
return costs £29.90, or £42 at peak
times. A weekly season ticket is
£109, an annual one is £4,360.
Parking charges are £9.80 a day,
or £127.90 a month.
Cycling It’s a tough six miles by bike
to Pulborough station, where there
are 22 sheltered spaces. Haslemere
station is almost twice as far, and
has nearly 200 spaces in a cycle hub
with 24-hour access, CCTV coverage
and maintenance tools.
Driving It’s a 90-minute drive to
London (although frequently
longer), 40 minutes to Guildford,
25 to Chichester and 35 to the sea
at West Wittering or Bognor Regis.
It takes about 50 minutes to reach
Gatwick airport and an hour to get
to Heathrow.
Broadband Roughly one in six
properties can’t get superfast speeds
down the phone line, so check
what’s available before you buy.
Air quality No reported problems.How to... talk to your estate agent
P
ost-lockdown rules make
effective communication with
your estate agent more crucial
than ever. “With face-to-face
contact limited, paperwork and
other requirements can fall through
the gaps,” says Colby Short, the founder
and chief executive of the estate agent
comparison site getagent.co.uk.
“Determine the best channel of
communication and don’t be afraid to
reach out regularly, even daily.”
But what should you say? Property
communicators share their secrets:When you’re interviewing agents
“Check if they have long-standing
expertise in property or have hopped
across sectors,” the property consultant
Alex Goldstein says. Gavin Brazg,the founder of the property website
the Advisory, has a list of 25 questions.
Along with contract tie-in periods and
data on comparable sales, he suggests:
“Which are the top five houses on the
market that my buyer is also going to be
giving serious consideration to?” Follow
this up with: “Looking at your pricing,
do you still feel it positions my house
against this competition to maximise
interest?” If they can answer without
hesitation, you’re on to a winner.Pricing and offers
“Give your shortlisted agents permission
to be brutally honest,” Brazg says. “Let
them know you’re not basing your final
choice on who quotes the highest price.”
Tony Hughes is the chief executive of
the business communication specialistsHuthwaite International. If you have an
offer on the table he says to ask your
agent to find out what forces are acting
on your prospective buyer. These might
include time pressure, lack of alternative
properties and “sunk costs”, such as
surveys invested. “Then ask your agent
to uncover the answers and use them to
hold on to your negotiation position.Organising viewings
Are you happy to rely on virtual
viewings or are you prepared to allow
would-be buyers into your home?
“This is down to you,” says Adam Pigott,
the chief executive of the property portal
Open Brix. “But your agent should be
prepared for physical viewings and able
to provide the precautionary measures.
Don’t be afraid to restrict access torooms. You can also request that buyers
don’t touch surfaces, handles and so on.”When progress is slow
Jamie Hope, the managing director of
the London estate agency Maskells, says:
“If one suspects that the price is too
high, ask them if they genuinely believe
in the price.” And money talks, adds Phil
Spencer, the TV property expert and
co-founder of the advice site Move IQ.
“An attractive commission rate will
motivate an agent to go the extra mile.”And the one thing you should never say
“I would never, ever give away the
lowest I would go in terms of
my sale price,” says the property
communications expert Christine Webb.
Jayne DowleIn The
Sunday
Times
tomorrow
How much
is your
garden
really
wor th?
Visit thetimes.co.uk
to find out morePetworth, top, and, above,
a two-bedroom cottage
just outside the town,
on sale for £410,000
through Jackson-StopsN
owhere does posh
better than Petworth.
A strong contender
for the title of Britain’s
classiest town, its
winning blend of
culture, countryside
and community is as
timeless as it is charming, and ample
recompense for commuters willing to
forgo the convenience of a station.
In the past few years the formerly
sleepy West Sussex backwater has had
an elegant makeover and a welcome
injection of energy. The town centre is
gloriously independent, and there’s no
sign of a chain store (the Co-op and
chemist excepted). It’s looking relatively
healthy post-lockdown. Most shops are
now open, including the Antiques
Market — a treasure trove of
knick-knackery — and the very
upmarket Augustus Brandt
antiques and furniture store.
The Hungry Guest deli
and bakery has been busy
throughout, adding a pop-
up fish shop and expanding
its menu alongside its
award-winning range of
breads, cakes, cheeses and
jams. It has also been offering
free home deliveries for
vulnerable town residents and
sending free brownies to NHS
staff and police officers. This town
is a big-hearted place with plenty of
opportunities to get involved, whether in
the craft group that raised £1,000 for the
local community garden last year,
or volunteering at the Petworth Film
House, although this remains closed
for the time being.
The Newlands House gallery,
a typically high-class addition to
90 IS THE NEW 60
Add half an hour to
your journey... and
find the perfect home
Commute from here:
Petworth, West Sussex
houses are few and far between, and the
South Downs National Park keeps
development to a minimum. Allow
£750,000 for a four-bedroom property,
£300,000 for a cottage or £625,000 for
a new-build, four-bedroom semi.
If you’re after something bigger and
you can afford to splash out, explore the
pretty villages that surround the town,
such as Lodsworth or Lurgashall. A
farmhouse with a couple of acres here
will cost well over £2 million, although
that also buys you one of England’s most
timeless pleasures, with or without social
distancing — watching cricket on the
village green with a pint of ale from the
atmospheric Noah’s Ark inn.
Tim PalmerPetworth’s cultural scene,
has extended its opening
exhibition of 100 photos by
Helmut Newton until the
end of August. One of the
country’s best regional
theatres is 25 minutes’ drive
away in Chichester, although the
big artistic highlight is the
Petworth festival. Like so much else,
this year’s event has fallen victim to
coronavirus, but an online version is
planned for the autumn.
This is a grown-up place to live,
with few childish pleasures on offer
and even fewer teenage ones. The
schools are decent, though, the two
local primaries rated good by Ofsted,and Midhurst Rother College, the local
secondary, outstanding at its most recent
inspection, in 2013.
For dogs, on the other hand, it’s
paradise. They’re welcome in most shops
and restaurants, and there’s usually a
free biscuit on offer at the Angel Inn
(scheduled to reopen on August 5). Pets
gather for a sniff, and their owners for a
chat at the National Trust’s Petworth
Park (entry to the grounds is free). For
more serious walks, the panoramic chalk
hills of the South Downs National Park
are just a few minutes’ drive to the south.
House prices are expensive, and if you
want to live in the town centre, be
prepared for a long wait — even longer
if you want something family-sized. BigALAMY